ArticlePilot and feasibility studies2019
A pilot study of the duration of GP consultations in Ireland.
Article in Pilot and feasibility studies, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
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The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed.
- Assessing the Feasibility and Acceptability of Implementing a Preclinic Vital Signs Assessment in Primary Care: Cross-Sectional Pilot Study.JMIR medical informatics · 2026Article
- The impact of headache disorders: a prospective analysis of headache referrals to outpatient and inpatient neurology and emergency services in an Irish University teaching hospital.Irish journal of medical science · 2024Article
- How many general practice consultations occur in Ireland annually? Cross-sectional data from a survey of general practices.BMC family practice · 2021Article
- Unit costs for non-acute care in Ireland 2016-2019.HRB open research · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundGeneral practitioner (GP)-led primary care is the linchpin of health care in Ireland. Reflecting international trends, there are increasing concerns about the sustainability of the current Irish GP service due to an increasing workload. Objective data on the duration of GP consultations are currently not available in Ireland. The objective of this pilot study is to demonstrate how the duration of consultations can be collected, using readily available administrative data.
methodsSoftware was developed to extract the duration of GP consultations using the opening and closing of electronic patient records associated with a GP consultation. GP practices (
resultsThe average duration of a consultation was 14.1 min for the 9 years spanning 2010 to 2018. Patients had an average time between consultations of 99 days.
conclusionsThis pilot study confirms that an administrative data set can be utilised at negligible cost to monitor GP practice consultation workload over time. Our preliminary pilot data show that GP consultation durations among participating practices were longer than the 5-11.7 min reported in the UK and show an increase over the period. Clearly, a larger number of practices and patients are required to substantiate this finding.
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